Surviving the Deadly Outbreak featuring Spinning® Master Instructor Jodi Mair | Jamaica
Posted by Spinning® on Apr 18th 2018
By Christina Castañeda Celebrating our courageous instructors this month, Spinning® Master Instructor Jodi Mair used the Spinning program to not only help her recover and connect with more people, but it soon became the cure in battling an outbreak of the chikungunya virus in Jamaica.In December 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) discovered the spread of the chikungunya virus by mosquitoes on the US Virgin Islands. By March 6th, 2015, the outbreak had spread across the entire Caribbean, including Jamaica, the home country of Spinning® Master Instructor Jodi Mair.The virus not only causes high fever and rashes, but it also affects the joints and nervous system. The infection inhibits mobility, causes inflammation, and has led to thousands of hospitalizations across the Caribbean and even a few mortalities.
The virus eventually reaches Jodi’s household in a sudden fashion. She, her husband and their three sons caught the virus all within the same week, and she continued her best to take care of them as well as recover herself. With the joint and nerve pain along with limited vision, completing daily tasks became a struggle and caused even more anxiety in the family. When she realized that she would be unable to recover alone, she reached out for help.For Jodi, trying to complete the physically demanding jobs of a Spinning instructor and personal trainer while suffering from the chikungunya virus became next to impossible. “We have this illusion that we are superhuman beings and we just keep going like machines until the machines break down,” Jodi says. “Then it gets really ugly. Break down I did about three months later.”During her breakdown, Jodi received news that she was selected to present at the WSSC Conference for the first time. Jodi could barely move as her body fought the virus and doubted that she would be able to make the trip to Miami. With limited time to respond, Jodi thought “this is what you have dreamed about and now the opportunity is presenting itself. If you turn it down, it may not come back.”With six months to prepare, Jodi used this upcoming opportunity to gather her strength and begin getting back to top shape. The next day, Jodi started with a simple walk and a few stretches for 15 minutes and realized that she was able to feel the “happy hormones” once again.“We don’t need to take our heart rates to 100% every day to feel good,” says Jodi. And the happy hormones were the encouragement she needed to start her recovery, knowing that if she gained this happiness every day, she would make it to the WSSC Conference and fulfill her dream of being the presenter that once inspired her when she was an attendee.Joint pain continued to be an obstacle on Jodi’s path to recovery. Thankfully, the set-up and safety of Spinning ensured that she had less pain and strain in the joints. She not only regained her fitness through Spinning, but she helped others suffering from the virus to renew their strength as well. She focused on the Endurance Energy Zone and shared the happy hormones with her riders, and the happiness began to spread quicker than any virus.Now that Jodi was determined to present at WSSC Conference, she had to find a session topic that would deliver the education and motivation that attendees expect every year. She peeled back the covers on one of her husband’s favorite books, The Four Agreements, and was so intrigued by the concepts of personal freedom and happiness that she dubbed her session “The Five Agreements.” Jodi knew that Spinning had a special element to add, but she didn’t know what the missing fifth piece would be yet.
As Jodi brainstormed, drafted and outlined her lecture, finding the fifth agreement only made her feel more lost. So for some inspiration, she decided to go back to what helped her recover, the endurance ride, and asking for help, so she reached out to her “Soul Sista”, Janine Montegardi from Ecuador.“The Five Agreements” at the 2015 WSSC Conference was a recovery ride, and with the collaboration between Jodi and Janine, “the awareness that the participants seemed to be connecting to the principles we were sharing, feeling this warmth/calmness throughout my body as I presented, seeing everyone cry at various stages throughout the ride and just knowing that I had given my best with what was available to me at that moment, having not quit, were some of the best moments.”We hope to see more of Jodi in future WSSC Conferences and other Global Rides and Events so she can inspire our global community with her original ideas.In spite of the virus still affecting many islands, the Spinning program continues to thrive in Jamaica and all across the Caribbean sea, “one Spinning Instructor Training, and one island at a time.”Has the Spinning program helped you recover? Has the Spinning program inspired you to add a fifth element to the principles of your life? We want to hear from you? Share your story at news@spinning.com or subscribe to the newsletter for more stories about our courageous instructors.
The virus eventually reaches Jodi’s household in a sudden fashion. She, her husband and their three sons caught the virus all within the same week, and she continued her best to take care of them as well as recover herself. With the joint and nerve pain along with limited vision, completing daily tasks became a struggle and caused even more anxiety in the family. When she realized that she would be unable to recover alone, she reached out for help.For Jodi, trying to complete the physically demanding jobs of a Spinning instructor and personal trainer while suffering from the chikungunya virus became next to impossible. “We have this illusion that we are superhuman beings and we just keep going like machines until the machines break down,” Jodi says. “Then it gets really ugly. Break down I did about three months later.”During her breakdown, Jodi received news that she was selected to present at the WSSC Conference for the first time. Jodi could barely move as her body fought the virus and doubted that she would be able to make the trip to Miami. With limited time to respond, Jodi thought “this is what you have dreamed about and now the opportunity is presenting itself. If you turn it down, it may not come back.”With six months to prepare, Jodi used this upcoming opportunity to gather her strength and begin getting back to top shape. The next day, Jodi started with a simple walk and a few stretches for 15 minutes and realized that she was able to feel the “happy hormones” once again.“We don’t need to take our heart rates to 100% every day to feel good,” says Jodi. And the happy hormones were the encouragement she needed to start her recovery, knowing that if she gained this happiness every day, she would make it to the WSSC Conference and fulfill her dream of being the presenter that once inspired her when she was an attendee.Joint pain continued to be an obstacle on Jodi’s path to recovery. Thankfully, the set-up and safety of Spinning ensured that she had less pain and strain in the joints. She not only regained her fitness through Spinning, but she helped others suffering from the virus to renew their strength as well. She focused on the Endurance Energy Zone and shared the happy hormones with her riders, and the happiness began to spread quicker than any virus.Now that Jodi was determined to present at WSSC Conference, she had to find a session topic that would deliver the education and motivation that attendees expect every year. She peeled back the covers on one of her husband’s favorite books, The Four Agreements, and was so intrigued by the concepts of personal freedom and happiness that she dubbed her session “The Five Agreements.” Jodi knew that Spinning had a special element to add, but she didn’t know what the missing fifth piece would be yet.As Jodi brainstormed, drafted and outlined her lecture, finding the fifth agreement only made her feel more lost. So for some inspiration, she decided to go back to what helped her recover, the endurance ride, and asking for help, so she reached out to her “Soul Sista”, Janine Montegardi from Ecuador.“The Five Agreements” at the 2015 WSSC Conference was a recovery ride, and with the collaboration between Jodi and Janine, “the awareness that the participants seemed to be connecting to the principles we were sharing, feeling this warmth/calmness throughout my body as I presented, seeing everyone cry at various stages throughout the ride and just knowing that I had given my best with what was available to me at that moment, having not quit, were some of the best moments.”We hope to see more of Jodi in future WSSC Conferences and other Global Rides and Events so she can inspire our global community with her original ideas.In spite of the virus still affecting many islands, the Spinning program continues to thrive in Jamaica and all across the Caribbean sea, “one Spinning Instructor Training, and one island at a time.”Has the Spinning program helped you recover? Has the Spinning program inspired you to add a fifth element to the principles of your life? We want to hear from you? Share your story at news@spinning.com or subscribe to the newsletter for more stories about our courageous instructors.